Just got this...

new furniture is fun.
still working it out.

but I love the crate- it's made from reclaimed pine and reclaimed hardwood.


This is my favorite part. Hubs found this cute bird's nest in our satellite dish on Thursday and had it waiting on my new cart when I got home from school. Perfect end to a horrible day...love him.

What does perfection look like?

Today it's this:
A lean-to in the woods with books, water and berries. One across the meadow for my sister and a cage in the back for my husband....shri.

Deal of the Century!

So I got some two great deals today:

For $.40 a box....and angels sang.

Going Green...maybe.

So yesterday I watched the documentary No Impact Man, about a family in New York that decided to make no net impact on the earth for one year. This was part of an experiment to decide what we are able to give up and still have a good quality of life.

I loved it.

Every 8-9 months I go through periods of extreme green dedication. I try to be as green as possible, my biggest complaint? Why does being green have to cost $o much? Since it's been on my mind today, I've been doing a little research about ways to save money, and save the environment.

• Compact Florescent light bulbs.

Compact Florescent light bulbs last up to 10 times longer and consume way less electricity. some estimates say that these can save up to $80 over the life of the bulb. Of course you have to balance that with the additional cost of the bulb. Overall, an average savings of $50-70. Not bad.

• Give away Junk (electronics). Recycling old cell phones, key boards etc. can help reduce a lot of waste, and it will help reduce clutter in your home as well. This website will suggest places close by where you can take your unwanted electronics. I generally give mine to Goodwill, but people who purchase them there are likely to just throw them away if they don't work. I'd much rather have them reused.
• Compost. I know it sounds gross, but even if you don't garden you can compost your biodegradables and work them into flower beds... or just the dirt, anyway. This can be tricky if you live in an apartment... and honestly, not worth it (to me, anyway). It's great for the soil and reduces waste. Plus, you'll save money on fertilizer!
  
• Let your grass grow.

When you mulch your grass, or put the clippings back into your lawn it adds nitrogen back into the grass, keeps weeds from growing so you'll need less fertilizer and weed killer. Also- you won't have to throw grass away, reducing overall waste.

• Full loads of laundry. I'm guilty of this occasionally. If I spill something on my clothes I immediately run to the laundry room and strip. This is not efficient. Wait, until you have a full load- or round up clothes from around the house to fill the laundry machine. If you wash your clothes with cold water...saving even more!
• Change your linens out with the seasons. During the winter use flannel sheets and lots of blankets (heating uses more energy than cooling), and during the summer change to lighter bed linens and a light coverlet and then maybe keep the windows open (on the shade side of the house, of course).
• Pack a lunch. When you go out to eat you contribute to huge amounts a waste- especially lunch items that are typically to-go (Subway, McDonalds). Instead pack a lunch and reuse your plastic bag. This saves the enviornment and the money it costs to eat out ($30-50/wk, yikes!)
• Buy Used! I love antiques so this one is kind of a perk! Anytime you buy something used your net impact on the enviornment is almost zero, the damage has already been done.
• Toilet Paper, can't help myself. Are you a four sheet person or a ten sheet person? Girls are the worst about this! If you're a ten sheet person just think, you spend less than half of what you're spending on TP, save the environment by reducing waste and conserving trees....just sayin'

Of course buying local, biking and going organic are all good ideas, but not very practical. Sure if you're going somewhere close by, try to bike or take public transportation... but local and organic foods are just too pricey. Until they can find away to make these more affordable, Wal-mart will have to do. I would, however, be happy to buy cereal from bulk bends- if only they tasted good~

Not quite Spring project 2:

By now I'm sure you are all sick of hearing about my dining room dilemma. I really struggled with this whole thing. Especially given the size of my budget (as close to zero as possible).

Initially I looked for tables that were my dream table but the pricing scared me! This whole style that I'm into right now is relatively new to me and what if I change my mind? It's risky business, so I decided to go the cheap (er) route and buy something with potential and make it my own.

I found this clawfoot table on KSL.com listed for $700. I thought that was a great price given the detail and the fact that it came with six chairs that also had a lot of detail. I went and looked at the furniture and could tell that it had been painted.



Obviously not the top, but the legs and chairs had all been recently painted, meaning that the wood underneath had some potential.



Black really isn't my thing, and the seat covers were horrible (sad because the girl I bought the set from told me she recently recovered them and painted the table legs black, the chairs were already black). I know I could have found the same set at a fraction of the price and not had to strip her black paint off, but I've been looking for a while and hadn't found anything.



I offered her $550, sold.

Five days and 90 hours (x2) later:



The paint was gone but what to do about the seat covers? I tried this:



But decided on linen instead:



I haven't put the final finish on yet. There are multiple coats of glaze and I'm deciding between wax and polyurethane. I brought it in from the garage to live with it for a little while before making a final decision.

The finish in these pictures is just raw wood that has been glazed (Ralph Lauren,Tea Stain) and rubbed, glazed, burnished, rubbed, glazed and so on...ask for more details.

So far,

I like it quite well.

My mom actually came into town to help me do this over spring break, and I couldn't have done it with out her. She is amazing at stuff like this. She made a template for slip covers for the chairs and took the linen home to make them.

She told me that my grandma taught her how to refinish furniture when she and my dad just got married- it's neat. I am liking the way the table it turning out.

To check out other thrifty finds check out: Southern Hospitality

Spring....almost.

So, it's technically spring in these parts. However, you can tell my the jackets in these pictures it's not Spring at all...practically speaking.

So here is the first issue we tried to tackle:

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Very dead grass. The previous family that lived in this house didn't exactly have an eye for detail (to put it VERY nicely). After lots of research and talking to the lady that knows lots about grass (and smokes some too, I think), we learned that we do indeed need to fertilize, but not before cutting the grass very very short. Short? It's already short- we must go shorter.

In Draper, our HOA took care of all the lawn care so we didn't have any lawn tools. Being the thifty type, I scoured 13 count 'em THIRTEEN garage sells looking for yard tools and a lawn mower, I only found two items. Neither a lawn mower so the husband and I went to Sears and bought one.

After our recent trip to Bed Bath and Beyond to buy mirrors (the lovely family before us took all the mirrors with them when they up and left this joint), we learned that Doug's back seat doesn't lay down. That makes my car (the MINI Cooper) our vehicle with the highest hauling capacity, score.

So after we picked out our lawn mower (this wasn't too hard because they only had one option for us to choose from) loaded it up, just like this:

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And made our way back to the palace, we commenced to do our yard work. Three hours later:





and no grass shorter. Doug moved on to a new project, the garden. Our lawn mower never worked. Never. It would start but it wouldn't stay started. You will notice the gas can in this picture. That is a fruit of my garage sale going. Aaand, it leaks. Awesome.


The other garage sell find was this little beauty. ( I still can't believe I went to THIRTEEN garage sales and two DI's and only found two items)

a rake.

This came in handy when the lawn mower wouldn't work and Doug had to start tilling the garden. (Gma and Gpa, this is our garden, or it will be soon.)

Don't feel sorry that he's tilling this with only a garden rake, he refuses to spend money on other yard tools- he's waiting to find them at sales.


Wicket enjoyed himself very much- he was a big helper while Doug was tilling, Wicket just dug right along beside him.

FREE FOOD!

Note: The original promotion has ended, but there is a new promotion valid until 8/13/2009 at Restaurant.com.

Save 80% Off w/every $25 Gift Cert. order. Use code PORTION. Pay $2 thru 8/13/09 at Restaurant.com. Enjoy!

Restaurant.com regularly sells $25 restaurant gift certificates for $10, and $10 gift certificates for $3. From today to 11/20/2008, a coupon code gives you an additional 80% off so a $25 gift certificate is only $2, and a $10 gift certificate is only $0.60! Additionally, FatWallet.com is having a 25% cashback sale on Restaurant.com so if you use FatWallet you would essentially get the $25 gift certificates for $1.50 each, and $10 gift certificates for $0.45 each after you receive the 25% cashback.

The coupon code is SURPRISE. You can search for restaurants within your area and add gift certificates to the restaurants you are interested in, and then add them to your cart and order. One thing that you must do with these gift certificates is to read the fine print. Some restaurants require minimum purchase amounts and some gift certificates can only be used on certain days so make sure that you read the details associated with each gift certifcate. After your purchase, you can print out the certificates or choose to print them later.

Currently the website is very slow because of this promotion, but there are a lot of restaurants to choose from. There are more than 100 restaurants within 15 miles of where I live and I finally purchased a few of these gift certificates to restaurants I know of. The gift certificates generally expire one year from issue and never expire in California and other states where the expiration of gift certificates is illegal. Even if you do not eat out often, these gift certificates could make great stocking stuffers!

Steps to receiving the max amount of discounts:

1. Sign up for FatWallet.com

2. Go to the Restaurant.com landing page and click through to Restaurant.com.

3. Add gift certificates you are interested in purchasing

4. Type in SURPRISE in the discount code box

5. Check out

The coupon code should give you 80% off and the FatWallet cashback should be redeemable in a few weeks. Make sure you don't sign up for additional offers at Restaurant.com.

Great Fasion Finds~

Buy one get one half off Mania, is what some could call it. Express just ended their little fall gift to us on Monday, but don't fret because New York & Co. has theirs in full swing. This fabulous city cardigan comes in assorted colors for $24 and then buy your second item 1/2 off! Plus find fabulous button down shirts for only $8. Ask yourself, how can this be wrong?

Old Navy is having a fabulous sale right now- The fall sale boasts 50% off of falls hottest items: Rugby's and Henley's for $10, Boyfriend Cardigans for $14- but a sale isn't needed to find this great scarf for only $9.99. (The sale is online only)

Left Over Madness

Doug and I have been trying to eliminate waste... OK, I have been trying to eliminate waste and cook more efficiently. I have found some create ideas about how to use left overs creatively. One website is Love Food hate waste, and the other is Recipe Goldmine.

My favorite comes from Recipe Goldmine, in the form of Roast Beef recipes. When we bought a side of beef last year, we had no idea just how much Roast we would be getting.

Roast Beef
— Cut into 1/4-inch slices. Dip into beaten egg, then into dry bread crumbs. Fry the slices in oil or butter until hot and golden.
— Put into a crock pot with some canned green chiles, a little cumin, a little garlic, and a little water. Cook until the beef is easily shredded, then use as a taco or burrito filling.
— Top meat slices with cooked onions and peppers and provolone cheese; serve on hoagie rolls.

Happy Cooking!